Jude 1: 25b — Saved

… our Savior …

As we continue with Jude’s doxology, we follow him from praising God for what he does for us (keeping us from stumbling and presenting us without fault) to describing the attributes of God. The first attribute is that He is the only God. There is no other God. He does not have any competition.

Today we turn to his most important work; the saving of his creation.

Speaking from a human point of view, God did not have to do this. He could have given up, dusted off his hands, and gone on to other projects. Yet he didn’t. God’s nature would not allow Him to abandon His creation. Instead, he had to save it.

We sometimes wonder, if God is so powerful, why didn’t he erase the mistake made by Adam and Eve? Couldn’t he simply press the cosmic UNDO button? The answer is no, he couldn’t. Why he couldn’t is not easy to explain or understand.

There is something about integrity and righteousness that constrains God from doing such a thing. He is not allowed to “cheat.” Instead, having created the Creation, having made mankind in his image, he must now abide by his own rules. And what are his rules? He, God, must be loved above all else, and people should love their neighbor as they love themselves.

The assumption here is that we love ourselves. It is a solid assumption. We do. It is called “self- interest.” Self-interest is what drives us to achieve. It is also what drives us to steal. God is perfect in that while he wants His Creation to succeed, he also wants it to be righteous. He loves his Creation. He loved his Creation so much that he had to redeem it from Satan.

To do that he had to invalidate Satan’s claim over Creation. The claim established by our sin. And, he had to do this in a way that would not violate his own rules. Satan had caused us to be spiritually “dead” by breaking our relationship with God. By ensuring that we humans became aware of evil, Satan guaranteed that we would never be able to live according to God’s will on our own. Thus God had to find a way to overcome both of Satan’s traps.

To restore us to a relationship with Himself, the essence of being spiritually alive, God had to overcome our tendency to violate His will (sin). To do this he became man in the form of Jesus. Jesus loves the Father above all else, fulfilling part one of the requirement. Part two was more complicated. By remaining in his Father’s will as a human, Jesus remained sinless. When Satan, through his proxies the Pharisees, crucified Jesus, he killed the only man who has ever been completely innocent in God’s eyes. This was Satan’s undoing.

When Jesus rose from the dead, Satan stood condemned before him. While Satan could argue with God about the righteousness of Job, Satan cannot stand in the presence of Jesus whom he unjustly killed. Jesus is now able to save us. If we believe in him, if we recognize his sovereignty, if we honor that sovereignty in word and deed, he will extend his righteousness to us. (He wants to extend his righteousness to all people, but it is not possible for those who reject Jesus as Lord.)

The Love of our Lord is the only truly safe place that there is. In His love, we are no longer in danger of the spiritual burn pile that awaits those who reject God. Instead, God’s need for righteousness in his Creation is met in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, our rebellion against God is forgiven and Jesus causes God’s own Spirit to enter in. Once that happens, true healing begins. It is this healing that transforms us from broken and sinful people to the glorious Creation that God had originally intended.

Application: If you haven’t already done so, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior now.

Food for Thought: Before Jesus, how were people restored to a saving relationship with God? How well did that work out?